The players of college tennis

This thread is for discussing how certain players play in college tennis. You can talk about any player you have seen in person (I guess webcam too but those are often a poor representation of a player). It can be one of the players on your team or anybody else.

Who has impressed you with their talent? Who has a certain great shot?Who is surprisingly high ranked considering that their game is unimpressive?

I went to the Vanderbilt/Middle Tennessee State match last week and watched a lot of the Rhys Johnson/Christoph Lang match at #3 singles. Johnson has an odd way of hitting his forehand in that he completely rolls the racket behind his body then whips it back around. When he timed it right it had some good pop unfortunately for him his timing was off most of the match and he kept hitting it late and putting ball after ball into the net. He's got a solid 2 handed backhand and all the tools to be good but he's got some confidence issues right now. I saw him double fault at least 7 or 8 times and he was rarely putting 1st serves in. Spent most of the match mumbling to himself. Lang basically just kept the ball in play and let Johnson hit one unforced error after another. He beat UGA's Hernus Pieters the previous week so he is capable of playing in the 3 spot.

MTSU's #1 doubles team was 6'8" Yannick Born and 6'5" Marlon Brand but they didn't utilize their height and hug the net as much as you'd think they would and got beat 8-4. Born played #4 singles and won several easy points on his serve but wasn't the quickest mover and Vandy's Offerdahl just kept moving him around the court and eventually would catch Born out of position.

Indiana's Josh Mactaggart is different, lots of angles, spins and change ups. He has no big shot or little pace but his game along with his mind games work against most players he faces. In doubles he reminds me of Cyril Suk, spins it in gets in fast and has great hands at the net.
Jomby for Kentucky gets a lot of press and he hits the ball hard. Every shot seems to be a go for the line and the day i saw him he missed a lot of them.

Indiana's Josh Mactaggart is different, lots of angles, spins and change ups. He has no big shot or little pace but his game along with his mind games work against most players he faces. In doubles he reminds me of Cyril Suk, spins it in gets in fast and has great hands at the net.
Jomby for Kentucky gets a lot of press and he hits the ball hard. Every shot seems to be a go for the line and the day i saw him he missed a lot of them.

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I've never seen Mactaggart play but for some reason that's exactly how I imagined his style of play. Sounds a lot like former Clemson player Derek DiFazio except better because DiFazio wasn't very good.

Jaggy if you saw him during the Indiana match didn't he win that game 6-0 and 6-1. I must admit my picture of Jomby was slightly tarnished during the OU match this weekend.

Before that he reeled off 5 straight matches winning 6-0, 6-1. I thought I was going to see the same when he went up 3 - 0 vs Alcorta. Then Alcorta stopped trying to match power but instead played deep slices and heavy bounding balls that prevented Jomby from attacking consistently. Jomby won in two tightly contested sets, and looked a little tired at the end of the second.

Nope I guess I was wrong about Jomby's record. I think he's had 5 matches where he's won 6-0 6-1. Anyways Jaggy was the guy he played against a grinder?

Tarnished? He can't win every match 6-0 6-1 haha. He still straight setted a very good player in Alcorta.

I am driving to East Lansing this weekend and while I am there I will catch a bit of Michigan State vs Notre Dame. I also just found out that Ryan Young(played #3 for Clemson as recently as 2007) is an assistant coach there now.

Mainly I want this thread to be fans from all over the country to share thoughts on players that they have seen since college tennis is limited as far as coverage.

Nah Clemson, I am just saying that he's not as "invincible" as I thought he was. He definitely doesn't like retrievers or grinders, which is why I asked Jaggy if that was the type of player he played in Indiana.

He's definitely more fit and more patient this year, but he's going to have to find a way to play those who aren't intimidated by his power and feed him slower spun returns.

Jomby actually played and beat Mactaggart though I couldnt stay to watch it all, similar players have blown mactaggart away. His early shot selection from what I saw was weak and in doubles he played real low % tennis.

From your description of Mactaggart I think that these type of players will give Jomby the most trouble this year. He can't rely soley on his power against these guys. He's going to have to work on shot selection and patience.

Nah Clemson, I am just saying that he's not as "invincible" as I thought he was. He definitely doesn't like retrievers or grinders, which is why I asked Jaggy if that was the type of player he played in Indiana.

He's definitely more fit and more patient this year, but he's going to have to find a way to play those who aren't intimidated by his power and feed him slower spun returns.

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Freshman from OU's Axel Alvarez (play #4) has very similar style to Jomby from the few matches I saw him played. I don't think he has as big of a serve as Jomby, but on the ground, he would always try to strike first, putting a lot on his fairly flat and heavy pace forehand (despite being from Spain ).

Another OU freshman Stakhovsky (play #6) doesn't seem to have much of a weapon with any shot, except for his placement serve. On the ground, this kid plays with fairly spinny forehand, move the ball around, and mix his drive BH with slices and chips. Very much fit in a grinder mold though he does seem to approach net quite often.

we had a poster go to Indiana vs Kentucky and one who went to Baylor vs Tulsa. Any players you guys wish to comment on?

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From the Baylor and Tulsa match, my favorite players would probably be no.1 and 2 of Tulsa - De Klerk and Marsland. De Klerk is extremely talented, his timing of the shots was amazing when he's on, taking the ball on the rise with his 2 handed BH, and eastern FH. Opponents will not be able to tell if his BH will be cross-court or down the line, since the motion is extremely fluid and shot got hit very early.

Marsland on the other hand, being 6'6'', just play huge and aggressive tennis both with serves and ground strokes. Because of this, he tends to miss a lot when the condition is tough outdoor and never seems to be a top 30 single player. But his win over Zsiga (as high as #14 or #15 last year) this past weekend just proved how much firepower he had.

Zsiga on the other hand really has disappointed me. I remember seeing him play last year going for big shots on the FH wings and closing points. This past weekend, just a typical grinders trying to get ball back in the court... Baylor's Krikovic was about the same, lefty grinder try to spin a lot of FH to his opponent BH. There was a time when Baylor's players was just hitting their opponents off the court with Benjamin Becker and Denes Lukacs... I guess this is good for my sooners though

An interesting individual matchup today if the players remain in their normal positions. Andrew Adams vs Amogh Prabhakar. Both are on the shorter side and have very similar games. Both like to stand close to baseline and dictate with powerful forehands. Their forehands aren't super spinning nor are they super flat. Attacking baseliners whose strengths will cancel out each other.

Saw Notre Dame vs Michigan State on Saturday. Without Pfister MSU was over-matched.

The most interesting player for MSU is John Patrick Mullane. Freshman from White Lake, Michigan. He is a big fighter. In the 2nd set after every other match had finished he battled very hard vs Monaghan to try and force a super tiebreak. He is athletic and gets to the net well and has nice touch up there. He suffered a very bad cramp in the 2nd set tiebreak and was writhing on the court. He eventually got up and played the next few points while hobbling to balls. He won 3 of the 4 points he was hobbling and after winning the point he prompted to tell Monaghan to bring it on, while he was still hobbling. In the end Monaghan pulled it out. But I think Mullane's fight and athleticism will make a solid player in the future. He sometimes leans back too much on his forehand and he also cannot flatten the ball out that effectively so he plays some longer points that he needs to. If he can add that to his game he will be dangerous in the Big Ten.

USC's Jonny Wang is probably one of the most entertaining players I've ever seen. Two handed both sides with a sick slice and a lot of variety. Definitely one of the more talented players in college tennis.

Rafael Aita - Very solid ground stroker as you would expect from a South American player. Much better forehand. Can dictate points using his forehand. Cross court is his go to shot on the forehand side. Dosent have a ton of pace but good almost sideways spin that pulls his opponents off the court with his cross court shots. Uses some great forehand angles. He does have fairly basic patterns though. Does not switch up his shot selection often, I could tell exactly where he was going the vast majority of the time.
He dosent have as much topspin as you would expect and stands closer to the baseline as well, obviously his gane well adjusted to hard courts at this point on his career.

Danny Kreyman hits a shot that I have never seen any other player hit. He is a righty. On the stretch to his left side Kreyman will switch his racket to his left hand and hit a defensive lob. He does it quite often.